Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

This class is designed for beginners and advanced weavers who want to learn and refresh the basics of hand-weaving. Each week, you will focus on a different weaving technique or project. By the end of the class, you will have created a variety of woven pieces, such as a scarf, placemat, or wall hanging. In addition to learning how to wind a warp, set up a loom, and weave basic patterns, you'll also learn about different weaving techniques and how to troubleshoot common problems. This class is a great way to relax and de-stress, while also learning a new skill that you can enjoy for years to come. No prior experience is required.

Tina Harp is an accomplished fiber artist and educator who has been weaving for 27 years. Drawing from age-old techniques to reflect contemporary life, she loves to provide inspiration to those she teaches and enjoys sharing her knowledge. Tina lives on a small farm in Shandaken, NY with a large fiber arts studio. When not working with the animals on her farm, she spends hours weaving textures and playing with colors that bring pleasure to her days!

Fee: $285 + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

In this workshop, we will work from personal photographs to create hand-cut paper images. Participants will learn how to navigate the shadows, layers, and movements in a photo and ensure that the cut image remains structurally sound without the use of adhesives. The skills practiced in this workshop can be applied to any image, allowing participants to create dynamic papercuts from their own photos. There will be discussions and demonstrations to assist students through this amazingly complex, and beautiful, art-form. All levels of skill are most welcome.

Rosa Leff has exhibited her work throughout the United States, China, and Mexico. Her work has been acquired by The Canton Museum of Art, The Colored Girls Museum, and The Museum of International Folk Art. She is the recipient of a 2021 Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist Award, the 2021 Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City Artist Travel Prize, and the 2023 360 Xochi Quetzal BIPOC Residency. Leff resides in Puerto Rico with her husband and chihuahuas.

Learn more at rosaleff.com

Fee: $330 + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

If you love to fire and love lots of different effects, or if you’re short on atmospheric firing experience, this intensive workshop is your ticket. You will participate in different types of firing, achieving results in a short time. We’ll fire soda, wood, gas reduction, raku, and pit! Emphasis is placed on glaze/surface preparation and firing techniques through demonstrations, lectures, and hands-on participation. You bring the bisque-ware, and we deliver the heat and the joy of this Catskill community.

With a MFA from Alfred University, Bruce Dehnert has tried numerous times to conquer the World. Instead, he has had to be satisfied with authoring Simon Leach; A Pottery Handbook, being a member of the International Academy of Ceramics, having works in numerous museums and private collections, winning 3 Fletcher Challenge International Ceramics awards. Bruce is the Director of the Ceramics Program at Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts, Catskill Mountain Foundation.

Steve Cook pursues an aesthetic life’s “sweet spot” of beauty, experience, value and meaning from his current home in San Diego. Steve earned a BA in Sculpture (figure and installation) from Penn State, studying abroad in Taipei at Fu Ren University and National Taiwan University. He earned a MFA in Film (essayistic experimental documentary filmic installation) from Cal Arts. Steve has worked and taught in a wide variety of media and for surprisingly diverse industries, in the US, Asia and Africa, for the past 40 years, earning both awards and condemnation.

Learn more: brucedehnert.blogspot.com

Fee: $620 + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

Mosaics inspired by the natural world range from abstract to representational. We will work in the indirect method with instruction tailored to your individual needs. Beginning with an overview of materials, substrates and tools, students will move onto composing their mosaic. Key elements of mosaic design will be emphasized: Andamento (the placement of tiles), color, value, and texture. Under the instructor’s skilled guidance, you will bring your nature-inspired vision to life in mosaic.

Cynthia Fisher has been a professional artist for 35 years with a focus on mosaics. Beginning her career as an editorial and children’s book illustrator, Fisher’s work metamorphosed to constructing mosaics. At Big Bang Mosaics studio she creates installations for public, residential, and corporate settings nationwide. Fisher’s extensive body of work explores illustrative, painterly, and non-representational. Cynthia is a long-time supporter of our Center and we are over-the-moon to have her teach in this summer’s program.

Fee: $380 + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

Using clay to create pottery, sculpture, architectural and other forms, reaches back as far in time as 28,000 years ago when the first paleolithic Venus figurines were sculpted. From the magnificent, Native American pots to modern day tilework, sculptures, and functional vessels, hand-building processes have played an important role in artists’ abilities to express their imaginations and cultures through this most malleable medium. During this exciting course, students will learn a variety of processes, tools, and approaches to realizing form. There will be demonstrations of pinch, coil, and slab techniques, firings, and ample time to pursue individual work in our beautiful, friendly studio.

Learn more: instagram.com/maureengarciaclay

Fee: $285 (includes first bag of clay) + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

There are many reasons that making pottery on the wheel has become so popular. Making pots gets us more in touch with our elemental ‘selves’. Fashioning pots with our hands, and minds, serves our desire to create and realize our imaginations. The farm to table movement has made us more aware of the relationship between locally grown foods and handmade wares. We aim to celebrate this relationship by offering an introductory course to making pots. Students will learn how to prepare clay and, using the potter’s wheel, create tableware shapes. There will be demonstrations, individual attention, discussions about ceramic’s rich history, glazing, and firing. We can’t guarantee your pots will make an appearance at your next feast, but it’s worth a try!

Learn more: 28aclay.com

Fee: $285 (includes first bag of clay) + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

Locally prospected clays, known as “wild clays,” have been utilized for pottery-making for thousands of years. Join us in this workshop as we explore wild clay’s potential as a clay body, slip, or glaze material. This workshop will provide an opportunity to discover the possibilities of materials found in your own surroundings. Let's craft together and enjoy this creative process of transforming the Catskills' wild clay into creative objects. Intermediate to advanced skills in wheel-throwing or hand building are appreciated. Test firings are planned.

Takuro and Hitomi Shibata are Japanese ceramic artists who formerly resided in Shigaraki, Japan, and are currently based in Seagrove, North Carolina. Takuro holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Applied Chemistry from Doshisha University and is the director of STARworks Ceramics. Hitomi holds degrees in ceramic art from Okayama University, Japan. She received a Rotary International scholarship, which brought her to the US, where she studied at UMass-Dartmouth. Their first book, Wild Clay, was published in October 2022.

Learn more: studiotouya.com/hitomi-shibata

Fee: $700 (includes first bag of clay) + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

Rug Hooking is a traditional art form here in the Catskills. Beginning with a complete kit, students will learn how to hook a simple 8" x 10" picture using hand-dyed strips of wool. Learn how color and texture function in this intriguing craft technique. Because this tool is portable, students will be able to continue working on projects outside class hours, and the next morning will be spent going over how the colors create textures, how to fix a mistake as well as lots of show and tell. Demonstrations and lots of individual attention are guaranteed. 

Tina Harp is an accomplished fiber artist and educator who has been weaving for 27 years. Drawing from age-old techniques to reflect contemporary life, she loves to provide inspiration to those she teaches and enjoys sharing her knowledge. Tina lives on a small farm in Shandaken NY with a large fiber arts studio. When not working with the animals on her farm, she spends hours weaving textures and playing with colors that bring pleasure to her days!

Fee: $385 + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee